Blogs are a wonderful way to record free associating on the net. They are also fantastic tools to search for 'found images' which you can reinterpret and represent in a completely fresh context. I started in Central America with Glyphs, then stumbled into tattoos and finally focused on Gay Cowboys; transforming them into more rarified etchings. Unfortunately you learn by your mistakes and having created two beautiful families of tattoos grouped under Lions & crucifixes I lost the lot!!

Wednesday, 2 May 2007

Towards a print solution

Wondering if with my found images I can produce an interesting print image in the practical session. Perhaps a mock version of a Gilbert & George styled image using various tatoos and images on tattoo sites of hunky cowboys. WOuld like to play with the photocopier and layering on photoshop to try this out if only I could work out how. The other idea I have is to play around with scale using these found images a la Sigmar Polke to see to what extent their meaning alters when you blow them up several times. Need to spend more time sourcing detailed images of tattoos from sites that show the printed images you can buy online. What I love about this project is the red herring aspect of it how you can get lost on tangents.

Sourcing Tatoos on line

Egyptian Glyphs

History of Palenque and tour

Palenque overview

Chichen Itza web site

Inspiration with confusion

Sometimes the number of options can be overwhelming and confusing. It's a case of playing and experimenting freely, preparing to make mistakes, discoveries and get lost in new ways of expressing yourself. Like Alice in Wonderland going down the tunnels and meeting strange characters.

TIkal Ruins - click on 3rd pic

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Arriving at Palenque

Temples at Palenque - The first time I visited this site I was bowled over by the heat. Throughout the day it got hotter and hotter and we ended up swimming in a natural waterfall nearby which was freezing

Chichen Itza

The temples and carvings at each of the ancient ruined cities I visited were remarkably peaceful and beautiful. It was hard to imagine the brutal sacrificial rites that must have been carried out by the high priests. Many of the people were offered as human sacrifices to appease their Gods.

Palenque museum

Glyphs closeup

Uxmal

Glyphs upclose

Palenque Museum

Glyphs - I would like to consider using these images as inspiration for a series of mini mono prints which could all be mounted individually in a grid format like this display in the museum.

Uxmal

Detailed carvings

Temple of Incriptions, Palenque

Contains tomb of Pakal

Overview Palenque

Avocado trees amongst ruins

King Pacal of Palenque

Off in his rocket

Mayan Calendar

Modern day version of ancient calendar

Mayan God of Fertility

Painted Mayan God

Mayan carvings close up

Symbols and patterns

Uxmal

Carvings on Mayan Temples

Tikal

Temple in the heart of the jungle

Chaac - Rain God Uxmal

Carvings on temples

Panorama of El Castillo and Temple of the Warrior in Chichen Itza World Heritage Site, Yucatan

Typical step pyramid

Mayan Temple

Temples in the jungle

Mayan God

Tattoo

Mayan dancer

Elaborate head dress

Modern Mayan woman

Girl carrying wares to market

Mexican beauty

Off to market - I visited so many markets and also spent time with the women learning how to weave. By the time I came home I was weighed down with beautiful examples of their work which I had bought from them at various markets. Sadly very few huipiles are now made with natural fibres or embroidered with silk thread.

Mexico

Ancient ruins, brilliantly coloured markets, stunning scenerey, grotty humid and scary moments, exhilirating and uplifting but brief friendships, tedious bus journies, all these memories came flooding back to me as I searched Flickr. The other aspect of these brightly coloured memories sparked of a desire to screenprint using some of the colours that one finds in buildings there and in the handwoven clothes.